Cloud - how did this label stick

Cloud Computing is slowly becoming an industry buzz word. It is quickly becoming THE term of the decade pretty much like Investment Management or Fund Accounting used to be the buzz words of the Nineties.

The term Cloud Computing probably is derived ( at least partly) from the fact that on any software architecture the internet or any large networked environment is shown as a big Cloud. So guess that kind of stuck and now remains synonymous to what is now quickly catching up as a Cloud service. Now CRM is Cloud CRM, Mail is Cloud Mail, Applications are Cloud Applications. What is it, I am not sure lot of people understand it and they need not. Who cares what it is, all they know and care to know is they can depend on it to send and receive data from it.

Typically send and receive is a Mail function; so mailing is the first abstract use of Cloud. Cloud computing is now taking on a more higher level of abstraction. It is now being attached to higher degree of utility or grid computing.

The hardware and software required to keep it functional are now capable of much higher level of service. Users are blind to this side of infrastructure as they need not bother, all the users care is can I have access to this Cloud and can I use it to build applications.

CRM - CoLoction v/s OnPremise

On-Premise CRM
There are so many companies that prefer to deploy their CRM solution in-house, behind a firewall. Most of these companies will not want to trust their data to the cloud while others prefer to keep all their data in their own sights. These are companies who are still waking up to the reality of Cloud CRM.
There are some companies who have so much of data to transport that they prefer to keep their CRM on the same box or within their own LAN to keep that data easily accessible.

And then there are some that would Buy rather than rent.

Data Center CRM
Another option is the midpoint between the Cloud and the corporate network. In this case, the company would buy their CRM software and will have it hosted with specialty CRM hosting company on a dedicated server, or on a dedicated server in a standard colocation facility. Builders CoPilot is a classic example of such CRM software colocated in a data center.
Builders CoPilot CRM Software solves the problem of buying the CRM software rather than renting it, but saves the efforts, expense and maintenance of another box to their server stack.

For companies that are looking for the flexiblity to change from one deployment method to another at some point in the future, there are certain vendors that offer all three of the above options with the ability to easily migrate from Cloud CRM to on-premises CRM, for example.

Cloud CRM

Builders CoPilot offers home builders the flexibility of a unique, cloud CRM model through CoPilot CRM. CoPilot CRM enables companies to have the best of an on premise and software as a service model. Unlike many other cloud CRM providers, CoPilot CRM provides a flexible cloud based solution that allows home building & realty companies to work off of dumb terminals and not worry about infrastructure and IT needs.
Cloud CRM’s popularity is due to a number of factors, including: limited to no IT involvement; pay as you go; and pre-baked integration with other cloud applications. CoPilot Cloud CRM is a multi-tenant, as opposed to a dedicated server application.